The symbol was centered in a circle of wood embedded in the floor, about two feet in diameter. Jake started to feel around for the edge, and was about to take out his knife when Quentin stopped him.
“I’ve seen something like this before,” Quentin said. “See how those spokes jag to the right?”
“Yes?”
“Watch,” Quentin said, putting both hands on the disk and pushing clockwise. It took a moment and a little more muscle to get it moving, but then the disk broke free. Quentin pushed down on one side to get the other to rise, worked his fingers underneath, and lifted it from the floor. There was a round chamber underneath, just a few inches in depth. Plenty deep enough to hold a single piece of paper, facing up.
It was the last link in the map.
* * *
It took Kate a full five seconds to process what she was seeing out the back window. Vehicles. Large, green, boxy vehicles with treads instead of wheels. Snowcats.
She was looking down on top of them, here on the back side of the building where the window was higher. The vehicles looked vintage. They must be old, she told herself, must have been abandoned here for decades.
Her mind demanded this, because nothing else would make sense. But no, they were in the open area behind the monastery, unsheltered, with no snow or ice covering them. Behind the vehicles, she spotted the fresh tracks leading away to the northwest.
She was sure she would have heard these snowcats arriving, but she hadn’t. They were already here, she thought, waiting for us.
* * *
Quentin held the paper as Jake shined his flashlight on it. It was the same basic design as the others, with vague topographic lines marked with a dozen ancient runes. To the right of those, in a separate banner, was another string of words in German. Der Zug fährt auf halber Strecke zum Bahnhof Štrbské Pleso. The words meant nothing to Jake or Quentin. They’d have to take this back down to Professor Lewis.
“Lewis told us that this link was different from the others,” Jake said.
“He did.”
“Are you starting to get the feeling that this one’s different because, how do I even say this? Because it brought us here?”
“This monastery feels like it must have belonged to the Brotherhood,” Quentin said. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yes,” Jake said. “Which means that the map may have been created here, so that the different links would lead back here.”
“ ‘There’s no place like home,’ ” Quentin said. “Although this sure as hell isn’t Kansas.”
A voice came from behind them. “No, we’re a long way from Kansas, Toto.”
Jake and Quentin both stood up. In the doorway was a man wearing a fur-lined parka. He had thin blond hair, almost white, with intense blue eyes behind rimless glasses. Beside him stood Franz, the giant they had thrown from the train. Franz had a patch over one of his eyes and bruises of every color all over his face, but he was very much alive, and he was currently holding a Heckler & Koch MP7 submachine gun, which looked like a toy in the man’s giant hands.
“Did I get that right?” the man in the glasses asked, with a pronounced German accent. “I don’t watch many American films.”
“Who are you?” Quentin asked, even though he could take a good guess.
“My name is Klaus Egger,” the man said. “You’ve already met my lieutenant, Franz.”
“You’re the leader of the Brotherhood,” Quentin said.
“At your service,” Egger said, as Franz leveled the barrel of the submachine at Quentin’s chest. “Now, if you’ll hand me that last link, and all of the others, please.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“How did you know we’d be here?” Quentin asked.
“I always knew the map would lead back here eventually,” Egger said. “Back to my grandfather’s mountain, where the Brotherhood began. Everything you said about the map being born here, it is true.”
Quentin glanced at Jake. They were both thinking the same thing. Where are Nick and Kate? Are they safe?
“Your grandfather’s mountain,” Jake said. “Is that what you called it? I knew this place felt like pure evil.”
Egger allowed a thin smile. “Of course, you’ve been programmed to think that way. ‘The victor will always be the judge, and the vanquished the accused.’ ”
“Joseph Goebbels,” Quentin said. “Let me guess, your grandfather worked for him?”
“Goebbels poisoned the Führer’s mind and betrayed his nation. My grandfather answered only to Hermann Göring.”
“My mistake,” Quentin said. “Didn’t mean to offend. How did you get up here, anyway? Did your father put in a hidden elevator?”
“He came up the Swiss side,” Jake said.
Egger nodded. “A brave man can drive a snowcat from Zermatt,” he said. “One slip of your treads and it’s over. But it’s considerably less taxing than traversing a mountain without one. Now, if you don’t mind, the map.”
Egger held out one hand, like a teacher impatiently waiting to collect homework. Quentin glanced at Jake, then at the submachine gun barrel leveled at his own chest. He took a few steps forward with the map section they’d just retrieved from the floor, handed it to Egger. He stayed directly in front of Egger, looking him in the eye.
“The rest of it,” Egger said.
“I don’t have it.”
“You don’t strike me as the kind of man who’d trust anyone else to keep it.”
“Everybody else leaves this place,” Quentin said. “Safely. Then I’ll give it to you.”
Egger frowned and nodded like he was actually thinking this over, then said, “Here’s my counteroffer. Franz will shoot your friend in exactly five seconds.”
Franz redirected the gun from Quentin to Jake.
Quentin’s mind raced through the tactical possibilities. Egger may be armed, he thought, but he’d have to reach for his gun. Can I get to Franz before he shoots Jake?
In the end, he didn’t see any scenario that didn’t end up with Jake dead on the floor. He unzipped his jacket, lifted up his shirt, and took off the money belt wrapped around his waist. He didn’t bother opening it. He just handed it to Egger.
Egger unzipped it, took out the other four pieces. His whole demeanor changed once he was holding the five map pieces together, as if they were the most precious objects in the world. Which they were. Put them together and they would lead the holder to $30 billion in gold.
“Mein Gott,” he said, slowly shaking his head. “See, Franz, these are the other pieces that form the whole. Even if I knew the last piece would be here on the mountain, it would have meant nothing to me without the others.”
As Egger flipped through the map pieces, Franz gave Quentin a shove, pushing him away from the door and back toward Jake.
“Auf dem Turm, Deutschland Siegt Auf Allen Fronten,” Egger said, reading the banners on the map links one by one. “To the tower, of course. Der verrückte König würdigt den Schwanenritter. The castle. Der Eisbär dient dem Erzherzog von Österreich und dem Heiligen Römischen Kaiser. The polar bears. Der Fels ist stabil, während sich die Welt dreht. Which brings us here, of course. To this place where my grandfather once stood. The rock that doesn’t turn. This map is his life, Franz. He helped create it, and then he disappeared forever. Nobody ever saw him again. I believe wherever the gold is, that’s where my grandfather is, too. I believe he’s been personally watching over the wealth of the Reich for seventy-five years.”